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Erie's plans to demolish 116-year-old house are raising a ruckus

Town says it needs lot for future expansion as Erie grows

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
09/08/2013 02:00:00 PM MDT

ERIE - It has stood at the corner of Holbrook and Cheesman streets since President McKinley occupied the Oval Office, one of Erie's oldest structures and a testament to the town's humble coal mining beginnings.

But now with the end of the road in sight for the house at 675 Holbrook St. -- the Erie Board of Trustees voted six weeks ago to demolish the town-owned building -- historic preservationists are attempting to make a last stand to save the small Queen Anne-style house with the double-gabled roof and decorative shingles that was built a mere 23 years after the Town of Erie was incorporated.

They have filed injunctions and restraining orders -- unsuccessfully -- against the town in an attempt to stop the demolition and now members of the Erie Historic Preservation Advisory Board have either resigned or threatened to resign from the board if the house comes down.

"The Erie Historic Preservation Advisory Board is here for one reason -- to ensure that nothing happens to these buildings," said board member John Garcia, who is weighing whether to call it quits from the seven-member board. "The Board of Trustees should have handled this differently. They have an advisory board but they didn't seek any advice from those of us on the advisory board."

Richard Lefcourt, a former board member who turned in his resignation a few weeks ago, said 675 Holbrook St. probably has the best "curb appeal" of Erie's portfolio of historic homes and buildings. The house, which was built in 1897, was first owned by mine superintendent George Morrison and later became the home of James Charlesworth, a miner who worked his way up to the position of foreman and in 1937 was elected to the state House of Representatives.

The Morrison/Charlesworth House, which has been vacant for more than 10 years and is now in an advanced state of disrepair, was included as the 12th stop on Erie's historic walking tour in 2011. Located just north of Erie Town Hall, it was determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places three years ago.

"It's a little frustrating when you have a grand old Victorian and you don't have the avenues to save it," Lefcourt said. "It would be an awfully nice thing for Erie to have."

More space needed for town hall

Town officials sympathize with the historic preservationists and their desire to save the building but strongly disagree that trustees didn't listen to the historic preservation advisory board when they made their decision in late July to knock the house down.

"The town has gone through the public deliberation process and even had to go to court to defend itself and prevailed," Town Administrator A.J. Krieger said Friday. "It's impossible to say the town didn't listen -- (the preservationists) just didn't like the decision."

Krieger said conversation around the fate of the Morrison/Charlesworth House has been going on for years -- the town purchased the property in 2000 -- as Erie planners have contemplated ways of keeping the heart of Erie government in the historic downtown district in the face of limited space for expansion. Erie's town hall, just a few dozen feet to the south of the threatened house, is an old stately stone building but it is quickly running out of room as the town explodes in population from a couple of thousand residents 13 years ago to more than 20,000 today.

Tens of thousands more people are expected to settle in Erie in the coming decades.

"Without an ability at some point to expand the building, we'll outgrow it," Krieger said.

Expansion plans, whether they come in the form of more building space or additional parking spaces for the town hall, would likely require using the lot where the Morrison/Charlesworth House now sits, he said. The Board of Trustees, he said, determined that the building was just too far gone to try and save it feasibly.

"Historic preservation comes in many forms," Krieger said. "We can best honor the significance of this block by keeping it the long-term home of Erie government."

'Part of my environment'

Lefcourt, an architect, acknowledged that restoring 675 Holbrook St. would be no easy task. He called the house a "gigantic money pit" that would have to be stripped on the interior to see what there was left to work with. But he said it didn't seem like the town made much of an effort to track down grant funding at the state or federal level to help defray costs.

In late July, History Colorado wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees asking it to reconsider its decision to demolish the house. Patrick Eidman, a preservation planner with the organization, wrote that Erie could get a no-match grant to complete a historic structure assessment of the house, and if designated as a local or state landmark, it would be eligible for state historical grant funds to help pay for rehabilitation.

"Preservation of the Morrison/Charlesworth House represents a powerful opportunity for the town to provide leadership in the area of historic preservation as outlined in the comprehensive plan and town ordinances," Eidman wrote.

Krieger said there is no date certain for when full demolition will occur, but he said parts of the building have already been taken down or removed.

That leaves Bill Fletcher, a lifelong Erie resident, disconsolate. The 79-year-old remembers delivering The Denver Post to 675 Holbrook St. as a kid.

"It's been a part of my environment for 79 years and it's sad to see these places go," Fletcher said. "It should be taken care of in a better manner. It has a better future than being blacktop or a weeded lot."

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